How Old is Colton Underwood from ‘The Bachelor’ and What Does He Do For a Living?

The newest bachelor Colton Underwood is well on his way to finding love in season 23 of The Bachelor. Despite initial pushback on ABC’s choice to have Underwood as it’s lead on the show, audiences are warming up to the former football player.

As an audience, we have gotten to watch a lot of Underwood’s love life play out right in front of us. From appearing on Becca Kufrin’s season of The Bachelorette to having to leave Tia Booth in a tear-filled goodbye on the beach in Bachelor in Paradise, Underwood hasn’t had an easy road in Bachelor land.

But what about who Underwood is outside of the world of roses and heartbreak? What do we really know about him?

Age

Underwood was born on Jan. 26, 1992, making him 26 years old at the time of filming. If this seems like a young age to be the bachelor, it’s because it is. Typically the leads on the show are in their late twenties to early 30s. Underwood is actually the second-youngest bachelor that has ever been on the show.

To find a younger bachelor, you would have to go all the way back to season five’s Jesse Palmer. He was only 25 when he filmed his season.

Weirdly enough, right after Palmer’s season, the producers decided to go in a different direction and cast the oldest bachelor in history, Byron Velvick. Velvick was 40 years old when he started his journey to find love.

The choice to go back to a younger bachelor this season could have been due to the backlash that season 22’s bachelor Arie Luyendyk received. He was 36 at the time of filming and had quite a number of younger women vying for his attention. The most notable being Bekah Martinez who was just 22 at the time of filming.

Huge age gaps between contestants and the leads of the show can be uncomfortable to watch, so switching back to a lead who is closer to the age of the contestants makes complete sense.

Job

Since his appearance on Kufrin’s season, Underwood has been praised for being a football player. But, his football career wasn’t actually all that the show made it out to be.

Underwood started out his career spending three years on several NFL practice squads. During this time, he never actually got to play in an NFL game.

In May of 2014, he signed onto the Los Angeles Chargers practice squad as an undrafted linebacker. Unfortunately, he was let go from that position in August. He then went on to play with the Philidelphia Eagles for two weeks in 2014. Later, he returned to Los Angeles’ team, but only as a member of the practice team. He spent the rest of that season there.

In 2015, Underwood divided his time between the Chargers and the Oakland Raiders before his career ended with him being cut by the Raiders in 2015.

Charity

After his football career ended, Underwood wanted to use his money and platform to do something to help others. In 2015, he founded the Colton Underwood Legacy Foundation. According to the foundation’s website, it’s purpose is to”provide resources for research and support of people living with Cystic Fibrosis and encourage youth participation in athletics.”

The charity has donated over $100,000 to Cystic Fibrosis patients and research clinics.